A friend of mine works for a national organization. Its leaders decided they needed a new website. So they identified some firms that might help. They sent out a request for proposals. They got lots of them.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the cyberspace forum. The bidders wanted to do design. They wanted to do programming. They wanted to “build the client’s brand.” But none of them wanted to provide the content—the words, the images, the video, the music that would either inspire people or bore them to tears.
This is not uncommon. I hear constantly from people who’ve signed on for some tool or another in response to a fad or fetish or sales pitch—for blogs, or Facebook, or Twitter, or a new website, or print ads, or TV spots, or radio commercials, or brochures, or what have you. Then, oh by the way, someone tells them they have to fill up that time or space, sometimes over and over, with something, anything.
All too often, that “filler” fails. Because it was done on the fly. Or on the cheap. Or without smart strategy. Or without sufficient understanding of the audience. Or because the tool that was purchased in response to some fad or fetish or sales pitch wasn’t right for the job.
I love all the options available to contemporary communicators. I love orchestrating the mix. But in the end, the tools are just tools. You can’t fill them up with just anything and pray they’ll work or pronounce them failures when they don’t. The message still matters. Content was, is, and always will be king.
Posts
fantastic and timely insight. Content is king. No question. Not just from the standpoint of the customer or prospect or user. But when it comes to websites or web assets in general - search engines value relevant content. Regardless of the clever strategy - be it white or black hat - content still represents the “ace” card. People aren’t interested in shells - they want substance. Companies that sell sizzle yet forget the steak (or in my case portobello mushroom) are missing the boat. Again and again.
Your “Filler” column is right on.
At our firm, we often find ourselves being asked to pitch on Web site projects in which the key interest seems to be “use the latest technology”…and when we talk to the potential client about what it will take to sustain those technologies with content…..well, you know the blank stare as well as I do.
Right on! What’s great about the world we live in is that through technology, a lot of the ambiguity is gone from marketing. We are now able to actually listen to our customers, prospects, constituents…
Data can now drive our conversations in the direction that our constituents want them to go. Simple things like keyword research tell us the words to use so we speak in “the language of our customers”. One of my favorite quotes from Googles Matt Cutts: “Think about what people are going to type…and talk about that”
Or Ian Laurie of the bestseller: Conversation Marketing:
“Think about the words that people use to find you.”
“Then, as a revolutionary new strategy, actually write those words in your copy.”
Also consider Google Alerts. Set Alerts to monitor other conversations about your industry, your company, you… Set alerts targeting the keywords that are important to your business. Conversations happen weather you participate or not. Let these conversations help guide your content strategy.